Art Gallery
by HurricaneRelic
Summary: An artist with memories forgotten. A man missing someone dear. MuggleArtist/Something!AU


Harry woke with a start, thrashing about and reaching over to the other side of the bed.

Unsurprisingly it was still empty. As it has been for a few years now; ever since the accident.

Harry wasn't terribly surprised that the nightmares came back at this point. It had just been another year since the accident. Harry still blamed himself to some degree; he should have tried harder to stop Luna from going on that trip or perhaps he should have joined her on that trip.

Harry was devastated to hear that the plane had gone down. Over the ocean too. The plane had been smashed to pieces, and only bits a pieces of the wing and fuselage were ever found. Even a year later, no one knew exactly where the plane had gone down. Survivors were an impossibility.

Harry stared at the ceiling; it prominently featured one of Luna's works, an updated work of one that he had first seen in her room when they first met. An updated version of what Harry saw in her room when they first met.

Harry sat up abruptly, scrubbing his eyes and blinking at the clock that sat at their—his bed side. It was 5 in the morning, about time for him to get up anyways. Hermione was visiting him today. Something about dragging him out of the house.

Harry found himself preparing a small meal in the kitchen a few hours later. Refreshed from his morning jog and distracted with the cooking Harry finally settled down a bit.

A few minutes later someone knocked lightly on the door. Harry whipped a towel off the rack and wiped his hands before tossing it onto a chair as he passed by. He opened the door and welcomed the guest in.

"Hey Harry!" Hermione smiled warmly as she entered. "How are you doing?" There was just a hint of pensiveness to her voice. She had taken the day off to help Harry get through the anniversary of the accident.

"I'm—fine." Harry replied. He cursed the slight hesitation in his voice as he said that. Hermione picked it up immediately; she raised an eyebrow, a silent question, but didn't push any farther.

Harry pushed through. "So what did you want to talk about? We can chat over breakfast, before you head off to work."

"Oh right!" Hermione got into a seat and Harry piled some of the prepared meal on to a plate before setting it in front of the girl. "I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to the art show they have this weekend."

"I-"

"You haven't been to an art show since." Hermione caught herself. "In a really long time."

"I don't know if I can."

"But you enjoyed it so much when Luna was around." Harry immediately cringed at that. Was around. Was.

Never will be around again.

Harry tried to shut it out of his mind, but it had already triggered the memory of the nightmares. The flashbacks to the news articles. Harry was still sure that there were newspaper clippings and printed out articles kept in some drawer somewhere in his house. Any and all the news on the crash.

"It's something that Luna would have wanted you to do." Ah. The trump card.

"I-" Harry tried to think of some excuse, really any excuse. Even some excuse to be mad at Hermione for pulling that out.

Hermione didn't know what Luna would have wanted of him.

Except she did. They both did, they had both been friends with Luna for more then long enough. They knew Luna wouldn't like it for Harry to slowly shut himself away from the world. Harry had spent the better part of the past few years slowly becoming a recluse. His friends were really the only reason he hadn't been shut in his home permanently in grief. Well, his friends and his job.

"I'll think about it." Harry finally replied.

Hermione smiled, she knew that was about all she was going to get from him. She thanked him for the meal before she set off to work.

-v-

That weekend Harry found himself outside an art museum. It had a special exhibit featuring a new up and coming artist. Hermione had called him, telling him that she was running a bit late and that he should go ahead without and enjoy herself. She'll join him in a bit, quite possibly dragging Ron with her.

Harry paid for tickets into the exhibit and started walking around. Almost immediately he had memories of when he last did this with Luna. Her sort of dreamy interpretations of the artwork, frequently making up various creatures to go with some of the splotches of paint they frequently saw in some of the artworks. Luna started trying to mimic some of the splotches just to recreate those "creatures".

Harry's eyes were almost immediately drawn to one of the portraits. A seemingly impressionist painting of a person. The distinct features Harry could make out were the raven mess of hair and distinct green eyes.

Harry couldn't help but think it had a little bit of resemblance to himself, but he pushed that thought out as coincidence. Harry's face did make it into the newspaper a few years back. His first year in the police force and he helped bring down one of the most feared serial killers at the time. Perhaps the artist just got hold of a his portrait from the numerous newspapers articles then.

Harry continued on. Stopping every few paintings. Harry enjoyed the art on quite a few of the paintings. Every couple of paintings featured a person that seemed quite similar in appearance to the person in the portrait.

Harry continued through the gallery, trying to figure who the portrait was of. The pictures had plaques, indicating that they were all painted by the same artist. One called Pandora.

As Harry walked through the gallery, he heard voices chatting away at another part of the gallery. The voice seemed vaguely familiar. Perhaps Hermione had finally arrived. Harry traversed the hall to the divider and walked around to another portion of the gallery.

There Harry stopped. He blinked. And blinked again. He couldn't quite figure out what he was looking at. Standing there staring at the painting were two girls. One Harry certainly recognized. Waist length dirty blond hair. That same dreamy voice, the talking normally in a much-too-quiet gallery. There was even the ring that he had given her, still on her hand, emeralds sparkling softly in the gallery light. It was Luna.

"Ex-Excuse me." Harry stuttered. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things or not.

"Oh I'm sorry. I was being rather loud wasn't I?" At this Luna turned around. Her companion turned around too looking a bit apologetic. Then they both noticed who was standing there. "Did you step out of one of my paintings?" Luna tilted her head and seemed to study Harry.

Step out of one of her paintings, didn't she recognize him?

"Luna, don't you know who I am?" Harry tried. He also took another tentative step forward. That certainly was Luna.

"Luna? That name does sound very familiar. I do like it quite a bit."

"Um, sir, do you know...her?" Luna's companion asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'm her f-" fiance. Harry decided against introducing himself like that. It might be a bit strange, especially since Luna didn't seem to fully recognize him. "friend. I'm her friend."

"Then come with me a moment." Harry just nodded. He followed her around the corner, hoping for some answers. How was Luna here, and why didn't she remember him?

Harry learned from girl, Susan, that Pandora, as she was known to those who found here, here was involved in some accident of some sort. She washed up on the shore of a small town a few years back with no real recollection of who she was. Susan was trying to help her around, and to readjust to life. Doctors said there shouldn't have been any lasting damage, and that she should get her memories back with sufficient exposure to bits from her previous life, though doctors did warn that there was a chance that it might never come back. Though finding bits of her previous life was rather difficult.

Her accent had certainly placed her in Britain. So she had decided to paint to earn some money and get enough for a flight to fly back "home". Where ever that was.

After a while they joined back with Luna, who was gazing at a picture a few pictures down. Harry walked up to Luna; she smiled as he approached. "May I join you through the rest of the gallery?"

"Of course."

Harry then reached down and grabbed her hand. The same instinct that he had every time they were walking through a gallery. Harry didn't even notice until he felt a light tug on his hand. He turned to see Luna still rooted to the spot, gazing at their conjoined hands.

"Sorry" Harry muttered, and tried to pull his hand out.

"Don't be. It feels," Luna paused. "It feels rather nice."

She gave him a serene smile and allowed him to lead her to the next portrait. Harry smiled and started observing the portrait. He quickly pointed out the little splotches of color that had been named Nargles and Wrackspurts.

Luna giggled at the names, and pointed out that she had a few of those in some of her own paintings.

A few hours later, and an exhausted Harry, Luna, and Susan found themselves outside the gallery. Harry was a bit sad that Luna hadn't regained all her memories, despite all the tidbits that Harry had tried to tell her about during their time together, but Harry promised to visit again soon.

* * *

W/C: 1642

A/N: Hmm. I liked the premise of this story, but I don't think I got the characterizations or really the general flow. Though I also had to put this out in like a few hours due to time constraints and such.

Anyways, Hope you enjoy!

For those following me for A Study in Magic, an update for that might actually be out next week, as finals are over, and I'm out of a school for all of a month. Expect updates!

Also for video gamers/artists: I recommend The Beginner's Guide. Pretty neat narrative game.


End file.
